The mutant miner
by MA7
Summary: A day in the life of a mutant in the Imperium of Man


The mutant miner

Deep deep underground, a naked mutant male named Fred was bent awkwardly in an extremely narrow crawl hole hammering the end of a chisel to chip away at the hard rock. Fred didn't own any clothes, nor did he own shoes or gloves or anything else. Mutants didn't get given clothes.

What Fred had was a short handled hammer, a blunt worn chisel, and a battered old tiny flashlight to see what he was doing. The tools were far older than Fred was, and very cheap to start with, and worn from generations of mutant miners using them.

As well as his tools, Fred had his body. A crazy tangle of curling horns grew out of his skull in 6 different places, which was very useful as they acted like a hard hat to protect his head from constantly bashing and scraping against the rock. The horns were extremely worn from the constant abrasion, but grew constantly to replace the damage.

As well as his horns, he had a scorpion tail, a crab claw in place of his left hand, hoofed feet on his hind legs, and a long prehensile penis which was currently wrapped protectively around his balls. The rest of his body anatomy was human enough, though so calloused all over from the constant abrasion that his skin was like thick leather.

Fred held the worn blunt iron chisel in his left crab claw, holding it against the rock face as he hit it with the ancient worn hammer in his human right hand. The wooden handle of the hammer was cracked from age and worn from use, and it was a miracle that it hadn't snapped yet.

Fred had no idea how old he was, he had no way of measuring the passage of time down here in the mutant mine. He had no idea if it was day or night, had no idea what time it was right now, and he had no certainty if he was an adult or still a child, though his interest in females suggested that he was at least a teenager. He had asked other mutants how old he looked, but it was hard to tell with creatures as variable as mutants, and they had been unable to decide his age, as he had never grown facial hair, though wether this lack of facial hair was just a mutation or not was unknown.

However old he might be, Fred had been born in this mine, and had worked ever since the females weaned him. He was not sure which particular female was his mother, the females of the mine shared the infants freely between each other. Children chose their own names when they learned to talk, and names were not fixed, being freely changed on a whim throughout life. Fred liked the name Fred, and had kept it for as long as he could remember.

Fred had never seen anything outside the mine, but had heard stories passed down the generations about a world up above, where they had days and nights, and were not mutants, a place ruled by the mighty two headed eagle, a god eagle named "The Emperor" who had demanded that all the mutants live down in the mines or face his terrible wrath. Fred greatly feared the Emperor eagle god, and always tried to dig his tunnels with a slight downwards slope to make sure he never accidentally reached the world above and angered the eagle.

Fred trembled at the thought of the two headed eagle, and redoubled his efforts to chisel faster to appease the Emperor eagle. The eagle wanted gold, always demanded more and more of it. The veins that contained the gold flecks were extremely thin and narrow and irregular, jutting and angling this way and that in crazy zigzags. The veins often ended unexpectedly, only to begin again further along in a random direction, and the mutants had to dig long and hard to locate the hidden veins.

As he chiseled, Fred used his scorpion tail and long prehensile penis to move the chiseled rock chips behind him for the females to collect and take away. The males chiseled, and the females gathered the rock chips and cared for the infants, if the females did the time consuming chiselling then they would have no time for the infants. It was a traditional system that worked very well to give the eagle his gold.

The crawl holes were incredibly narrow and tight. It took so much effort for every cubic inch of rock chiseled out that Fred could not afford to make his holes any larger than absolutely necessary. It was tight and cramped and stuffy and dusty. It was also hot all the time this deep underground, the rocks were hot down here, but Fred had been born into this hot environment and didn't know anything else and was used to the infernal heat. He didn't know it but the brutal heat had killed nearly all the original mutant miners, and only those with high temperature tolerating mutations had survived to breed more of their kind, and Fred only survived down in this hellish heat as a result of this brutal natural selection purging the weak from the breeding pool of his ancestors.

Fred had never known anything except the mine and the stories passed down the generations. Generations of his ancestors mining had created a labyrinth of tight crawl holes so extensive that no one still living had ever individually managed to explore them all.

The oral tradition of the mutants that was passed down from generation to generation told of which major groupings of crawl holes still contained veins of gold, and which major areas to avoid. The ancient wisdom also told them which areas were prone to cave ins, and taught them how to judge which rock looked liable to cave in and how to dig in such a way that the holes were less likely to collapse. The tradition taught them about how to ensure ventilation by connecting holes together with each other in strategic places to let variations in rock temperature make the air convect on its own, keeping them all from suffocating.

The wisdom of generations of ancestors kept the mutants alive day by day, and new wisdoms learned in this current generation were added to the oral tradition to pass on to the next generation, making life easier with every generation.

Fred had learned these wisdoms well as he carefully chiseled into the vein in a very specific way to minimise the possibility of a cave in. He worked very efficiently, getting the most chips of gold flecked rock for the least amount of effort, but it was still incredibly hard work.

Fred's flashlight flickered and died, it's static electric battery once again depleted. Fred grabbed the flashlight and used his thumb and forefinger to gently turn the recharge wheel for 1000 turns. Fred had no idea how this flashlight worked on a mechanical level, and merely knew how to operate it. When he finished turning the wheel he pushed the on button on the flashlight and it once again shined with a very dim light that his eyes were accustomed to.

Fred kept chipping away at the rock, making slow but continual progress, piling the rock chips behind himself with his flexible tail and penis in the tightly confined hole. The hole was mostly horizontal more than vertical, and at the moment it was turning around in an awkward corner to follow the crazy zigzag of the gold vein he was following. His supple back was bent around in the awkward angle like a contortionist, extremely flexible from a lifetime of doing this.

Fred had made maybe a cubic inch of progress when he heard the sounds of a female crawling down the hole towards him. She was still some distance away, and struggling to twist and bend through the extremely tight zigzagging hole.

Soon Fred noticed the levels of light increasing as the female's flashlight got closer, and he stopped chiselling and poised his scorpion tail in readiness. The female saw his tail and paused in her approach.

The female cautiously edged closer, trying to reach the rock chips, and Fred's scorpion tail shot out and wrapped around her neck without hurting her. The female tried to struggle, but Fred held his stinger very lightly against her skin in warning, and she became still.

Fred's long prehensile penis reached back and felt the female all over to learn what she was like physically. He found a pair of breasts on her, indicating that she was fertile age. He also found that she was even more heavily mutated than he was, and that she held a worn metal basket to collect the rock chips, and carried her flashlight in her mouth.

The female spat out the flashlight and said, "please don't sting me, I just want to get the rock chips,"

Fred liked the sound of her voice and pulled her in closer in the traditional gesture of courtship, indicating his desire to get his penis inside her reproductive organs with her permission. The females sometimes consented to let him mate with them, if they refused then he always let them go, never raping them.

"I'm not in the mood to mate," the female said impatiently.

Fred disappointedly let go of her and she got to work gathering all the rock chips into her basket. Fred resumed chiseling as the female awkwardly crawled backwards up the hole hauling the basket full of rock chips behind her. Fred wasn't totally surprised that she had said no, usually they said no, but sometimes they said yes, and he got to father new members of the next generation.

Fred's horniness subsided slowly, and he became aware that he was very hungry and thirsty. He began the laborious task of reversing backwards up the hole and was soon stuck behind the much slower female, and forced to crawl at her speed through hundreds of meters of zigzagging crawl hole before reaching a ventilation side hole big enough for him to squeeze through, turn himself around where this ventilation hole met up with the next crawl hole, and make much faster progress without being stuck behind the slow female.

Fred knew his way around the holes of this part of the massive mine system, and took shortcuts through ventilation holes to make rapid progress to the nearest water well.

The well was in the middle of a low ceilinged cavern tall enough to crawl on your hands and knees rather than just on your belly. The well itself was just a narrow hole in the middle of the cavern floor, a hole that went down many hundreds of meters to reach water far below. The well had taken a lifetime to dig, but it was worth it for the water.

The well cavern contained an immensely long nylon string tied to a large heavy rock at one end and an old scratched plastic bucket at the other end to get the water. The cavern was crowded with people at all times, being one of very few wells in the entire mine, and everyone was forced to visit the wells to drink.

Fred waited his turn to drink from the well bucket, drinking nearly the entire bucket to quench his thirst when his turn came. He then made his way through hundreds of meters of hole and side holes, towards one of the heavily guarded food caverns to eat.

The food cavern was massive, the ceiling so high that you could sit upright with room above your head to spare, and a full 50 meters wide, with columns of rock holding up the ceiling. Mutants with especially fearsome mutations guarded this cavern at all times, and strictly controlled how often you could enter.

Getting to even the guards was slow however, as there were lines of mutants crawling through the holes at all times, each waiting their turn to be scrutinised by the guards in the hope of being allowed to enter to get food.

Fred passed his time waiting by courting the female in front of him. She was heavily pregnant already and barely fitted in the crawl hole, but Fred was still game to try his luck. The female rejected his courtship angrily with a flick of her octopus tentacle tail, already impatient from waiting for food, and Fred disappointedly left her alone.

Another female joined the line behind Fred, and he excitedly wrapped his scorpion tail around her neck and pulled her close as a courtship ritual.

"Try it and I'll bite it off!" The female threatened angrily.

Fred wisely let go of her neck and did not try any further courtship with either female.

It was extremely boring waiting in this slow moving line in a narrow claustrophobic crawl hole, but the sight of the female's hind section right in front of him at least gave him something to look at to pass the time.

Eventually the female in front of him crawled out into a much bigger space filled with a crowd of clamouring mutants, and soon afterwards Fred found room in the crowd to crawl out himself into the seething hungry crowd.

This space was not the food cavern itself, but merely a wide tunnel that led to the food cavern proper. It was high enough to crawl properly on hands and knees, and very well lit from all the flashlights the crowd of hungry mutants carried.

The hungry crowd was angry and agitated, and tempers flared easily. The squabbles were not lethal, and no one was seriously hurt, but it was still unpleasant to be in. The entire crowd pushed and shoved to get to the food faster, and Fred pushed and shoved same as the rest.

After many squabbles, Fred finally got all the way to the entrance to the food cavern, and was stopped by the claws and stingers of the fearsome guards. The guards looked him over, judging if enough time had passed since he last came to get food.

"Alright Fred, you can enter," one of the guards said in an insect like mutant voice.

Fred gratefully entered the heavenly food cavern. It was MAGNIFICENT! Over a meter high! 50 meters wide! SO MUCH SPACE!

The food cavern was piled high with white nylon food sacks, emblazoned with a picture of the two headed emperor eagle god, as well as strange symbols in black lines, as well as bright red circles with bright red symbols inside the red circles. In those sacks was a scrumptious feast of food pellets, the generous reward the two headed eagle gave them for the gold.

Fred couldn't read, but if he could, he would have known that the black symbols on the sacks said "Livestock pig feed pellets, livestock food only, not for human consumption." If he could read then he would also know that the writing in the red circles said "quality control issues stamp, product deemed unfit for livestock consumption, recommend disposal in landfill".

Fred was blissfully unaware that the Imperium of Man was feeding the mutants pig food pellets that weren't even fit for the pigs to eat, and he gratefully ate his share of this kingly feast.

With his belly now full of the defective livestock feed pellets, Fred used the designated exit crawl hole to get back to work chiseling more gold.

He paused to do a crap in the crawl hole he was in. The heat of the rocks would very quickly dry the crap out to a brittle dry brick that would be quickly crushed to a powder in this dry hot mine. The well water from hundreds of meters below was so hot that the bucket and nylon were almost in danger of melting, and a plume of hot steam constantly rose from the wells and flowed through miles of tunnels to exit the mine at the mine shaft with the big elevator. The well water had been trapped inside the hot deep rocks for millions of years, prevented from escape by the non porous rock layers above, and seemed happy to finally escape up the mine shaft to the legendary world above.

The mine shaft was the only link to the eagle emperor's world above the mutant mine. It was the hugest thing Fred had ever seen, a square vertical shaft 20 meters wide, with a mighty iron cage on a steel rope that periodically went up and down.

The iron cage was emblazoned with the symbol of the two headed eagle, and had mighty iron buckets on wheels, "mine carts" the oral tradition called them, each mine cart also emblazoned with the emblem of the two headed eagle.

Around the bottom of the shaft was a series of metal rails to push the carts along, rails that extended 50 meters down a large horizontal tunnel, the largest and widest horizontal tunnel in the entire mine! The carts were pushed out of the cage when it arrived, and down the tunnel to let the females fill them with all the rock chips collected.

Oftentimes the carts came down loaded with sacks of food from the emperor eagle. The more gold the mutants dug up, the more food sacks they were given. The emperor eagle demanded the empty sacks back again, and gave less food if they did not return the empty sacks.

Once in a generation, the carts would come down with some already worn old tools in them, like chisels, hammers, baskets, buckets, ropes, and flashlights, extravagant gifts from the two headed eagle to continue the search for more gold.

When the carts were full, the mutants pushed them back in the iron cage, and waited. The cage rose and fell at random times, whether full of carts or not, sometimes the wait was long.

When a mutant tried to stay in the iron cage and ride in it up to the world above, the iron cage would contain that mutant's dead body when it came back down, full of strange blackened holes, killed by the eagle. The two headed eagle had decreed that mutants stay down in the mines, and his wrath was terrible to those who defied him!

Fred always avoided the mine shaft, it terrified him. It was bitterly cold, with cold fresh air constantly rushing down to replace the hot air that rushed up. And it was so bright! A harsh blindingly bright white light could be seen at the top of the shaft. The light was so small that it must surely be miles above them, but it was so bright that it made the entire shaft painfully bright to Fred's dark accustomed eyes.

Fred did not want to go anywhere near the eagle and his world above, he wanted to be down here where it was dark and safe.

Fred returned to his crawl hole, and continued chipping away at the rock, following the vein of gold. He chiseled away until he fell asleep. There was no concept of time here, the mutants slept whenever they felt like it, and worked whenever they were awake, just to get enough gold to eat.

Fred slept peacefully, dreaming about the females all accepting his courtship and letting him mate with them. The mutants rarely formed permanent couples in these incredibly narrow mines, it was almost impossible to find the space for such things. They mated casually as they happened to meet in the holes, and went their separate ways after they were done. The females had special caverns for birthing and infants, there was no room for males in those caverns.

And so Fred dreamed, dreamed about impregnating females and eating food pellets. It was such a nice dream.

***...


End file.
